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THE SHIPPEN HOUSE 

Some Account of One of the 
Historical Residences of Lancaster 



A SKETCH 



READ AT THE 



COMMEMORATION OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

1910 



W. U. HENSEL 

AT THE 

SHIPPEN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS 
LANCASTER, PA. 



Presu OF 

Th« new era Printing company 

Lancaster pa 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/shippenhousesome01hens 



THE SHIPPEN HOUSE 

Some Account of One of the 
Historical Residences of Lancaster 



A SKETCH 



READ AT THE 

COMMEMORATION OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

1910 

BY 

W. U. HENSEL 

AT THE 

SHIPPEN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS 
LANCASTER, PA. 



press of 

The New Era Printing company 

Lancaster, pa. 



s \* * Ji 



J 






THE SHIPPEH HOUSE. 



FOREWORD. 

On the evening of February 21, 
1910, by invitation of the mistress of 
the Shippen School for Girls, a large 
company assembled at the home of 
the School, the famous old Shippen 
house, at the northwest corner of 
Lime and Orange streets, in the City 
of Lancaster, Pa., to commemorate 
the anniversary of Washington's 
birth. There was a programme of 
musical and literary exercises, in the 
course of which the following paper 
on "The Day We Celebrate and the 
Place We Celebrate It" was read by 
W. U. Hensel. 

THE SHIPPEN HOUSE. 

I trust the time will never come 
when any patriotic citizen of these 
United States, called to make any 
public utterance, anywhere, suggest- 
ed by the anniversary, on the eve of 
which we stand now and here, shall 
be unmindful of "the day we 
celebrate," or inconsiderate of the 
way in which it is observed. 

Although more than a hundred and 
ten years have passed since George 
Washington died, none has been so 
bold as to challenge his right to be 
remembered and recalled as the 
"Father of his Country." Even in an 
impatient era of impetuous statea- 
manship.none has yet arisen so brash 
as to deny that as a soldier he was 
"first in war," as a statesman he was 
"first in peace," and as a citizen he 
was "first in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen." 



(4) 

He stood so high among his con- 
temporaries, and he has lasted so 
well among his successors, that no 
occasion should be lost to point any- 
moral and to impress any lesson that 
may fairly be gleaned from his life 
and character; and no assemblage of 
American people, however mingled 
in years and creed and political be- 
lief, should ever fail or falter when 
called upon to do homage to his 
blessed memory. 

To have Oeen either the success- 
ful captain in a great war or master 
in a great political revolution would 
merit "fame to fill the earth;" to 
have been the wisest of constructive 
statesmen and the most blameless of 
chief magistrates took nothing from 
his laurels as a soldier, while it add- 
ed new claims to his immortality of 
fame as a leader of men. But to 
have so survived in the honor and af- 
fection of his countrymen that after 
a century generations tottering to 
the grave tell the story of his worth, 
with ever-increasing adoration, to 
their lisping grandchildren, is to have 
rounded out the nearly perfect earth- 
ly career. 

Had he been less human in those 
"personal characteristics" to whose 
recital we have just listened with 
such interest and instruction, per- 
haps even the loftiest and stateliest 
sentiments of his "Farewell Address" 
might have endured less firmly in the 
minds and memory, in the hopes and 
hearts of his countrymen. He has 
been fitly described as "a man with 
good red blood in his veins; good 
common sense in his head; good 
kindly feeling in his heart." It was 
because he was a man in the stature 
of his mind and soul, as well as in 
his body, that youth and age, pupils, 
teachers and patrons of an institution 






(5) 

of refined learning meet here to-night, 
alike glad to do him honor; and it is 
right fit, too, that we should briefly 
recall the history of a house and 
home that were founded not long 
after he was born, have endured 
through all the intervening years^ 
and around which cluster personal 
and historic associations of every 
period of our country's fruitful ex- 
perience. 

Washington in Lancaster. 

And, as it has long been the high 
renown of old Antioch that the dis- 
ciples of the early church were there 
first called "Christians" so here, in 
this good city of Lancaster was 
originally bestowed upon our chief 
national hero the title of "Des Landes 
Vater;" and, of all the chaplets laid 
upon his tomb to-morrow, none will 
be more fragrant than that of Lan- 
caster's gifted authoress,* which I am 
permitted to read for the first time: 

"Des Landes Vater!" Little Bailey 

thought 
He gave eternal glory to this name, 
How it would live upon the scroll of 

Fame, 
Nor dreamed the tribute which his 

brain had wrought. 
The Father of His Country! Time has 

brought 
A mighty nation proudly to proclaim 
The meed of gratitude which he can 

claim 
The gift of Liberty, for which he 

fought! 
In former days we knew his presence 

here, 
What time he trod our old historic 

streets; 
To-day we venerate and hold him dear. 
As this his birthday our fair city 

greets, 
In honor of the Nation's noblest son 
The Father of our Country! Washing- 
ton. 



*Mrs. Mary N. Robinson. 



(6) 

William Penn,proprietor and found- 
er of the Commonwealth,was the first 
person, responsive to organized soci- 
ety, who owned his lot; and the Ham- 
iltons, founders of Lancaster, were 
acquiring title to it and plotting this 
section just about the time Washing- 
ton was born. When James Hamil- 
ton made title to Thomas Cookson 
for the piece of ground now occupied 
by this home and schoolhouse, in 
1750, he conveyed the exact dimen- 
sions and area which comprise it to- 
day, and its integrity has never been 
disturbed in the one hundred and 
sixty intervening years — either by en- 
largement or diminution. That 
Thomas Cookson, like many of the 
foremost men of old Lancaster, came 
from England. He was a justice of 
the peace, register and surveyor and 
early member of St.James,' where his 
memorial tombstone is yet to be read 
of all men.* His widow's second hus- 
band, George Stevenson,laid out York 
and Carlisle, which, like most good 
places west of us, are step-children 
of Lancaster. Cookson's one daugh- 
ter dying in her minority, two-thirds 



*Thomas Cookson's gravestone is in 
the Robing Room of the Church, and 
the inscription upon it is as follows: 

"Here are interred the Remains of 

THOMAS COOKSON 

(Late of Richmond, in Yorkshire, Great 

Britain), Esquire. 

He held and discharged with integrity 

several of the first offices 

in this County of Lancaster, 

and thereby, 

And by his generous Benefaction to 

this Church, as well as many good 

offices to his Neighbours, 

he deservedly acquired 
the esteem of Mankind. 
He died the 20th day of March, 1753, 
Aged 43 years." 

The monument to Edward Shippen 
is in the churchyard, behind the chan- 
cel, but the inscription upon it is il- 
legible. 



(7) 

of his estate in this and other exten- 
sive properties went to his daughter, 
Hannah, who had married Joseph 
Galloway, of Maryland. Partition pro- 
ceedings vested the title in her and 
her husband. She died childless, and 
Galloway got it first for life, as her 
surviving husband, and then the whole 
estate by purchase from Cookson's 
surviving nieces and heirs in Eng- 
land. 

The price paid for the fee in 1768 
was 2,500 pounds sterling, from which 
I infer that the terms of Hamilton's 
grant to Cookson had been complied 
with, viz., "making, erecting, build- 
ing and finishing upon the said two 
lots of ground two substantial dwell- 
ing-houses of the dimensions of twen- 
ty feet square, each with a good chim- 
ney of brick or stone, to be laid in 
or built with lime and sand." 
Two Joseph Galloways. 

I should like to be certain this 
Joseph Galloway was the noted man 
of that day, born in Maryland, early 
removed to Philadelphia to practice 
law, Speaker of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly, and a member of the first 
Congress. Like Franklin, he advo- 
cated a royal Government for the col- 
ony, but, unlike him, he abandoned 
the Whig cause, became a zealous 
Tory, wore the British uniform, and 
from 1778 to 1803 dwelt in England, 
with his motherless daughter. He 
was a ready writer, a conspicuous 
pamphleteer, an unsparing critic of 
Sir William Howe. His writings, and 
especially his testimony before the 
House of Commons on the conduct of 
the war in America, are standard au- 
thorities for the historians in both 
countries of that eventful period in 
our history. He has been styled "the 
giant and corypheus of the Loyalist 
pamphleteers." Lecky quotes him; 



(8) 

Trevelyan praises Mm highly and re- 
lies on his judgment; and in the Bib- 
liography appended to Moses Coit Ty- 
ler's "Literary History of the Amer- 
ican Revolution" he appears with 
twenty-two titles. His scheme to 
avert the war with England was pro- 
nounced perfect by Edward Rutledge; 
it failed by the narrow vote of one 
colony. Despite his loyalty to the 
Crown's cause, it would add to Lan- 
caster's many claims to distinction to 
be certain he lived on this spot 
for even a brief part of the ten years 
its title was in his name. The best 
authority I know on Lancaster's Rev- 
olutionary history tells me there were 
two Joseph Galloways — and that the 
Marylander and Philadelphian of that 
name were different persons. I saw 
two pictures of Joseph Galloway in 
Philadelphia the other day, as hard 
to reconcile as Peary and Cook, but 
they were both of Congressman Gal- 
loway; the man who went to Europe 
was a widower, as was Cookson's 
son-in-law; this property was deeded 
away just about the time the Tory 
Congressman left. The fact, how- 
ever, that the latter was born in Kent 
county, Maryland, and lived a lawyer 
in Philadelphia in 1778, whereas 
Cookson's son-in-law is described as 
a "gentleman" and of Anne Arundel 
county; also that the acknewledg- 
ment to the next deed was taken in 
Lancaster, in December, whereas the 
Tory Galloway likely had sailed for 
England in the early fall, make us 
hesitate to determine that they were 
the same person. 

Very likely neither ever lived here 
himself. Of one thing I am quite sure 
— if he did, like most of the other 
Tories of his time, he was not a pillar 
of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at 
night in the church I attend — because 



(9) 

when Joseph Galloway got safely to 
England he bore cheerful testimony 
that his dislike of the Revolution 
was intensified by an aversion to Pres- 
byterians, who in his own mind he "as- 
sociated with rioters and the baser ele- 
ments of society." 

Sold to the Shippens. 

Be this as it may, the next and very 
distinguished owner of the property 
was Jasper Yeates, lawyer and Judge, 
for a long period probably the fore- 
most citizen of the town. His name is 
linked with all our city's history of 
the later eighteenth and early nine- 
teenth century, and is now associated 
with a famous local boys' school. 
Sarah Burd, wife of Jasper Yeates, 
was the daughter of James Burd and 
his wife, Sarah Shippen, who was the 
daughter of Edward Shippen, "of Lan- 
caster." Hence the Yeates, Conyng- 
ham, Burd and kindred families. By 
the marriage of their daughter, Mary 
Shippen Burd, with Peter Grubb, 
"Shippen of Lancaster" became the 
progenitor of unnumbered Bates and 
Grubbs and Buckleys and Parkers, 
even to the third and fourth genera- 
tion of ironmongers and iron-masters. 
Both Edward Shippen's and Judge 
Yeates' lineal descendants still have 
representation at the Lancaster Bar 
in the person of Redmond Conyngbam, 
Esq.,Counsellor and Referee in Bank- 
ruptcy. Judge Yeates owned this cor- 
ner for less than two months — he 
never occupied it, and, likely.was only 
the medium through which it passed in 
1779 to his wife's mother's brother,Ed- 
ward Shippen, Jr., of Philadelphia, for 
£3,030 — thirty more than Yeates paid 
for it. The new purchaser was the 
first of the family name this house and 
school now bear to acquire title to the 
property. But none associated with it 



(10) 

has left deeper and more enduring im- 
press on the early history of Lancas- 
ter and of this house. 

We can trace the Edward Shippens 
back to England, the first born there 
in 1639; the next of the name, in Bos- 
ton, in 1674, died in infancy. Another, 
born 1678, died in Philadelphia in 
1714; he was Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as 
early as 1699, and the first Mayor of 
Philadelphia. He was President of the 
Council that governed the Province in 
1703-4; one of Penn's "keepers of the 
Great Seal," who, with Thomas Story, 
his son-in-law, and Griffith Owen, 
signed and sealed the early deeds for 
Lancaster county lands. One of these 
I submit to you to-night as a good ex- 
ample for penmanship as it is not 
taught in our later day schools — for 
boys. 

Driven from Boston by persecution 
of the Quakers, Edward Shippen's 
third marriage later separated him 
from the Society of Friends in Phila- 
delphia. His splendid house and home 
were celebrated throughout all the 
Colonies. Though located as far down 
town as South and Broad streets, his 
orchard was "great and famous," a 
"herd of tranquil deer" reposed on 
his lawn; tulips, carnations and roses 
grew in wild profusion in his fields; 
his daughters went to the assemblies 
In full dress on horseback, and their 
visiting cards, after the universal 
fashion of the day, were written on 
the face of imported playing cards. 
He had "the biggest person, the big- 
gest house and the biggest coach" — 
and of such are the Kingdom of 
Heaven in Philadelphia even to this 
day. 

Joseph Shippen was his brother, and 
it was his son, Edward IV., born in 
Boston in 1703, who spent most of his 



(11) 

public life here, and died in Lancaster 
in 1781; Edward V., or Junior, who 
owned this property, was born in Phil- 
adelphia in 1729, and died there m 
1806. 

His father, Edward IV., had been a 
merchant, furrier, Councilman and 
Mayor of Philadelphia, before he be- 
came Prothonotary, Recorder and Reg- 
ister in Lancaster county.which places 
he held variously from 1745 until after 
the Declaration of Independence. It 
was he, I assume — and who knows 
but, as a tenant of these very prem- 
ises, sitting out on this fragrant lawn 
— that balmy Sunday afternoon, July 
26, 1778, whom Christopher Marshall 
greeted on his way home from 
church! Remembering that Mar- 
shall lived only a few doors up East 
Orange street from here, you will 
bear with me to hear this brief but 
delicious extract from his famous 
diary : 

"Sunday, July 26, 1778. Fine sun- 
shine; clear, pleasant morning. I 
arose past seven; wind eastwardly. i 
took my walk in (the) orchard and 
observed the little concerns in our 
rural plantation. A general stillness 
now from the noise of drums, fires, 
&c. The little birds, with their mates, 
chirping from tree to tree; the fruits 
and vegetables; plenty and gay; the 
harvest got in, having been blest with 
fine crops of grass and grain, and fine 
weather. Thus has kind Heaven blest 
and (is) blessing us! Oh! saith my 
soul, that a universal hymn of praise 
and thanksgiving may arise and 
spread in and over our soul to our 
great and blessed Benefactor! Amen. 
In (the) afternoon I went to the Dutch 
Presbyterian Meeting House, where a 
suitable and good discourse was de- 
livered on this text, Corinthians, II., 
Chap. 4:17, by one Fifer, minis- 



(12) 

ter of the Church of England living 
at Frederickstown or Fredericksburg, 
I did not learn (which). Returned 
with Ed. Shippen, who pressed me to 
stop at his house, and drank (a) glass 

of beer of his own brewing After 

drinking tea, past seven, took (a) 
walk to Robert Taggert's, from there 
to the above mentioned meeting 
house, where the aforesaid parson 
preached to (a) large collection of 
people on this text, Eccles. 12:l,which 
held till past nine." 

A morning walk, a chorus of birds, 
a song of praise, a little beer, a lit- 
tle tea, two sermons in one after- 
noon! Those old forbears of ours, 
after all, were not a half bad lot. Lan- 
caster won't be Lancaster any more 
when it fails to mingle good cheer 
with sound religion, and to appreci- 
ate that good living is a real part of 
the better life. 

A Pioneer Presbyterian. 

It was this same Edward Shippen 
— the fourth, remember — who, as 
chief burgess of the town, was called 
out of church that bloody Sunday of 
the blessed Christmas-tide, 1763,when 
the sudden foray of the Paxton boys 
and their massacre of the Conestoga 
Indians on the site of our present 
opera house disturbed the worship- 
ping congregations of Lancaster's 
church people and stained our soil 
with a tragedy that has never had a 
local parallel. Though the victiims 
found sepulture no further from here 
than just back of where the Baptist 
Church stands on East Chestnut 
street, near Lime, it was described as 
a location "not far from the town." 

Be it noted that when John Wood- 
hull came here as the first pastor of 
the Presbyterian Church — and when 
it had no mansard-roofed manse in 



(13> 

sight — E. Shippen, Esq., was "one of 
the leading men among the Presby- 
terians," and when George Whitfield 
visited America in 1754 the Shippens 
were his staunchest friends. When 
Lancaster — then, as now, generous to 
every worthy appeal — raised a fund 
"for the distresses of the poor inhab- 
itants of Boston," Edw. Shippen was 
in the chair, and was entrusted with 
the forwarding of the money. 

His son, the younger Edward, was 
a lawyer of mildly Tory proclivities 
during the Revolution. When he for- 
bade his daughters attending the fa- 
mous British meschianza, it was due 
to a "feeling of shame at the indel- 
icacy of the costume" expected, rath- 
er than to any patriotic sentiment. 
It was his daughter, Peggy, who be- 
came Benedict Arnold's second wife; 
and, though she no doubt often visit- 
ed her grandparents in Lancaster, her 
father bought this house most 
likely as a home for his 
father — soon after her betrothal 
to Arnold, but two months be- 
fore her marriage. He owned it when 
her husband's treason shocked and 
stirred the Revolutionary cause. The 
one bright spot in that sickening and 
tragic story is Arnold's perfect loyalty 
to her even to death; and Lecky in 
his history says, "There is something 
inexpressibly touching in the tender 
affection and undeviating admiration 
for her husband which she retained 
through all the vicissitudes of his dark 
and troubled life."* 



*In the huge volumes of delightful 
gossip which make up "Watson's An- 
nals of Philadelphia," the recollections 
of Mrs. Ann Willing Morris include this 
reference to Peggy Shippen Arnold : 
"Mrs. Morris as a petted child was per- 
mitted to be present at the marriage 
of General Arnold with the daughter 
of Chief Justice Shippen. Of the char- 
acter and exploits of the traitor she 
in after life spoke in detestation; and 



(14) 

Was Peggy Shippen Here? 

It requires a vivid imagination to 
associate Peggy Shippen with the 
ghostly memories of this house and 
grounds — and the fact that her father 
sold it the next year after his father's 
death confirms the impression that 
it was bought as a home for him. But 
is it not pardonable to momentarily 
indulge the fancy that if Arnold and 
his bride had come up here to nurse 
the wound he felt when Congress or- 
dered his courtmartial, the week be- 
fore his wedding — if they had drank 
tea with Christopher Marshall for a 
week or two of respite from military 
and political intrigue, and had for a 
short season looked at and listened 



for far more serious cause did she 
then sympathize with her grandmother, 
the aunt of 'the beautiful bride,' in her 
sorrow and surprise that so great a 
sacrifice was permitted to one so much 
her senior, a widower with children, 
and who, by herself at least, was not 
regarded with the confidence and re- 
spect necessary to render the connec- 
tion desirable or agreeable. Owing to 
a recent wound, received under circum- 
stances which alone would have estab- 
lished a claim to grateful remembrance 
had not his subsequent extraordinary 
defection obliterated his name from 
the roll of his country's heroes, Arnold 
during the marriage ceremony was 
supported by a soldier, and when 
seated his disabled limb was propped 
upon a camp-stool. These wounds 
perhaps may have made him more in- 
teresting to the lovely but unfortunate 
bride. At all events, her 'hero,' ex- 
cept for his character for extravagance, 
was then regarded with a share of pub- 
lic favor, if not with any feeling of 
popular affection. He had rendered 
'some service to the State,' and was 
distinguished for gallantry among the 
bravest of the land. It is as unjust as 
vain to urge, as some have done, in 
palliation of his stupendous crime, the 
fashionable and expensive propensities 
of his accomplished wife. That she 
was addicted to displays of wealth in- 
consistent with the spirit of her time 
and the condition of public affairs may 
not with propriety be questioned; but 
no external influence can move a truly 
great and honorable mind and heart 
from a fixed purpose of patriotic or 
social duty." 



(15) 

to "the little birds with their mates 
chirping from tree to tree on these 
grounds," and had watched the mag- 
nolias unfold their rich and velvety 
purple to the balmy air of early 
spring, and marked "the patient 
stars" "climb the midnight sky" as 
they glittered through the dark pines 
that stood just back of yon rearmost 
kitchen, and maybe heard a sermon 
or two at the "Dutch Presbyterian 
Church," things might have gone dif- 
ferently — poor Andre would have 
been spared from the gibbet and Ar- 
nold from everlasting disgrace. 

That the people of the Common- 
wealth harbored no resentment 
against Shippen for his son-in-law's 
crime appears from the fact that he 
had been Chief Justice of the State 
for more than six years preceding his 
death. 

He had studied law at the Inns of 
Court in London, and prepared with 
his own hand the first "common re- 
covery" ever suffered in Pennsyl- 
vania. It was to his pen we owe the 
first law reports published in this 
State. He had been an Admiralty 
and Common Pleas Judge in Philadel- 
phia, and an associate on the High 
Court of Errors and Appeals. He 
pacified the tumultuous popular as- 
semblage gathered at Lancaster in 
April, 1756, to resent and avenge the 
Indian massacres to the west of us. 

After his father died he sold this 
place to his brother, Joseph, of Ken- 
nett Square, who kept it from 1782 
until his death, February 11, 1810. 
His wife, who was one of the Mary- 
land Galloways, died in 1801, and her 
husband's executors sold it for 1,100 
pounds in 1810 to Edward Shippen 
Burd, a grandson, who at once trans- 
ferred it to a son, Robert Shippen. 
He held the place for seventeen 



(16) 

years, when it passed to Hon. Walter 
Franklin, for the consideration of 
12,500. 

Poet and Judge. 

Joseph Shippen was a man of no 
mean distinction. He had served as 
a trooper in the expedition that cap- 
tured Fort Duquesne. He cultivated 
himself by European travel and study. 
He recruited his health in rural pur- 
suits about Kennett, and was appoint- 
ed justice of Lancaster county in 1786. 
He was a scholar and a poet — in a 
day when Lancaster county poets 
were even rarer than now. He was 
a patron of Benjamin West and had 
I the time to read some of his verses 
— which I shall ask "leave to print"* 



*He is said to have written the fol- 
lowing lines, which give us the names 
of the belles of the day: 

LINES WRITTEN IN AN ASSEMBLY 
ROOM. 

"In lovely White's most pleasing form, 

What various graces meet! 
How blest with every striking charm! 

How languishingly sweet! 

"With just such elegance and grace, 
Fair, charming Swift appears 1 ; 

Thus Willing, whilst she awes, can 
please; 
Thus Polly Franks endears. 

"A female softness, manly sense, 
And conduct free from art, 

With every pleasing excellence, 
In Inglis charm the heart. 

"But see! another fair advance, 
With love commanding all; 

See! happy in the sprightly dance, 
Sweet, smiling, fair McCall. 

"Each blessing which indulgent 
Heaven 

On mortals can bestow, 
To thee, enchanting maid, is given, 

Its masterpiece below. 

"In Sally Coxe's form and face, 

True index of her mind, 
The most exact of human race 

Not one defect can find. 



(17) 

— you would believe he was quite a 
gallant. As his second wife died in 
1801, and his gravestone in St. James 
records that he was not buried until 
1810, I cannot understand why he did 
not wed a third — unless the example 
of his ancestor deterred him with 
the fear of being put out of meeting. 
An advertisement of the property 
in the Lancaster "Journal" April 28, 
1810, describes it as "that large two- 
story brick house and lot of ground 
on the north side of Orange street, 
in the borough of Lancaster, late the 
property of Joseph Shippen, Esq., 
deceased. The lot is 51 feet 7 inches 
and a half front on Orange street 
and 245 feet deep, and has the 
privilege of an 8 feet alley on the 
west. The house contains four 
rooms besides a kitchen on the first 
floor and five on the second story. 
Also a handsome building lot adjoin- 
ing the above on the east, measuring 
34 feet in front on Orange street, 
and 245 on Lime street. Also another 
lot west of said house measuring 39 
feet 2 inches front and 245 feet deep. 
This lot has the privilege of an 8 
feet alley which is to be in common 
between this and the house lot." It 
was sold as an entirety, and com- 
prised what are now the halls, stair- 
ways and east side of the house. 
The traditional associations of the 



"Thy beauty every breast alarms, 
And many a swain can prove 

That he who views your conquering 
charms 
Must soon submit to love. 

"With either Chew such beauties dwell, 
Such charms by each are shared. 

No critic's judging eye can tell 
Which merits most regard. 

" 'Tis far beyond the painter's skill. 
To set their charms to view; 

As far beyond the poet's quill 
To "ive the praise that's due." 



(18) 

house with, the legal profession and 
with owners of high social station 
were maintained. Judge Franklin 
had been Attorney General of the 
Commonwealth, and was then Presi- 
dent Judge of the Second Judicial 
District, including not only Lancas- 
ter, but also, for part of his term, 
York, Dauphin, Cumberland and Leb- 
anon — a district now comprising 
nine judges. Upon his death the 
property, still intact, was devised to 
his widow, Mrs. Anne Franklin, who 
continued in possession of it until 
her death, and it was sold by her 
executors, in 1853, to Emanuel C. 
Reigart, for $7,910. The names at- 
tached to his deed, of Judge Frank- 
lin's two sons, the late Hon. Thomas 
E. and Col. Emlen Franklin, and his 
son-in-law, Dr. John L. Atlee, first, 
will readily suggest to my patient 
hearers, without extended sugges- 
tion, the illustrious company of 
Lancastrians whose ancestral asso- 
ciations extend over the twenty-six 
years of Franklin ownership and oc- 
cupation, and many of whom honor 
and dignify this occasion by their 
presence. 

The Reigart Regime. 

The next change of title made it 
the property of another leading 
lawyer and the home of a conspicu- 
ous family. Emanuel C. Reigart, of 
notable local and patriotic lineage, 
from the time of his admission to the 
bar, in 1822, to his death, in 1869. 
after twenty-one years' retirement 
from professional activity, was a 
leading citizen of Lancaster and of 
the Commonwealth, distinguished for 
his learning, benevolence, civic 
spirit and social excellences. 
To his numerous descendants, 
of whom several representa- 



(19) 

tives are also here to-night, this 
roof tree is a memorable shrine. 
Mr. Reigart made very considerable 
alterations and extensions to the 
house. There is a current belief — 
which I have no right and cer- 
tainly no disposition to disturb — 
that the east side of the house re- 
mains a part of the first pro-Revolu- 
tionary structure erected on the 
grounds. The memory of living 
man or woman runneth not to the 
contrary. The west wing and the 
present back buildings were built by 
Mr. Reigart. The rear kitchen was 
originally a separate building con- 
nected by a gallery and joined in the 
Reigart improvements. The front door 
in the center of the building, and the 
front to the east of the door.containing 
two windows, were undoubtedly the 
old part of the house, and there may 
have been some small part of a 
building to the west of this, but this 
was torn down by Mr. Reigart. He 
had an office in the front room to the 
west, and it formerly had a door en- 
tering from the front porch into the 
west room, this door being now re- 
placed by one window. There can 
be no mistake that the part of the 
old house now standing is three- 
fifths of the front building. Since Mr. 
Reigart's changes there has been no 
material alteration in the general 
lines of the building, and it remains 
only to say it is one of the most at- 
tractive and generally admired of 
Lancaster's many beautiful homes. 

During his ownership of the place 
Mr. Reigart made it the seat of gra- 
cious hospitality, and when his 
daughter, the ever-young Mrs. Brin- 
ton — long live her ladyship — was 
married in these parlors, James Bu- 
chanan, her father's steadfast friend, 
and then just chosen President of the 



(20) 

United States, led her from the altar 
to the marriage feast. Indeed, three 
daughters of this household were 
married here within a year; and Mr. 
Reigart used to say, three weddings 
in one year, like Franklin said of 
three removals, were as bad as a fire. 
His great grandchildren are now pu- 
pils here. 

The Shroder Ownership. 

Mr. Reigart's executors sold the 
property in 1870 to the late Francis 
Shroder, and Mrs. Shroder parted 
with it for the purpose for which it 
is now devoted in 1905. Many wit- 
nesses here can attest that during the 
Shroder proprietorship, t(he longest 
in its history, it lost nothing of its re- 
pute as the home of refined culture 
and a center of social pre-eminence. 
One of the pleasantest recollections 
of the famous Polish actress, Coun- 
tess Modjeska, whose charming me- 
moirs are now running through the 
"Century," was of her entertainment 
here as the guest of the Shroder 
homestead. It ceased, with the with- 
drawal from it of Mrs. Shroder, to 
be the private residence of a single 
family, after a century and a half of 
rich historical associations, such as 
have attached to no other single 
property in the town. The last child 
born under its roof is a young woman 
in this company to-night. 

It was the proud boast of an his- 
toric house in Virginia that none of 
our sex "but a gentleman" had ever 
crossed its threshold; and there is a 
romantic incident related to prove 
that this tradition was maintained 
even when the murderous blows of a 
bloody civil war were given and par- 
ried at its very door, and the battle 
lines of hostile armies were drawn 
all about it. So,without odious com- 



(21) 

parisons or invidious distinctions, it 
may be fairly said those who have 
wrought the chain of title to this 
property, running from 1750 down to 
this day, to our city's lasting credit, 
have "worn without abuse the grand 
old name of gentleman." 

And if I have taxed your patience 
and mayhap "vexed your ears with 
a twice-told tale," I can only plead 
that, as one fond of this good city, 
and to whom nothing that concerns it 
is foreign, I rejoice in the illustration 
of stability afforded by a piece of 
property so handsome and eligible, 
preserving its exact outlines free 
from spoliation for more than a cen- 
tury and a half; as a lawyer, it has 
been a pleasure to recall the associa- 
tions of this place with the distin- 
guished Judges and advocates whose 
names and families are entwined 
through its history; and as a neigh- 
bor, I greet with acclaim the reso- 
lute purpose of the men who stand 
behind this enterprise and the en- 
nobling aspirations of the gifted and 
gracious women who have pledged 
their unselfish labors to realize its 
lofty ideals. 

[Since the foregoing went to press 
I have ascertained that Joseph Gal- 
loway, the owner of the Shippen 
House, was the son-in-law of Chief 
Justice Benjamin Chew, of the Su- 
preme Court of Pennsylvania, who 
was commissioned April 9, 1774, 
whereas Joseph Galloway, the loyalist, 
was a son of his half-brother, and, 
therefore, a nephew of Joseph, of 
Anne Arundel. Edward Shippen was, 
therefore, a connection by marriage 
with both of them. The fine old Gal- 
loway house, known as "Tulip Hill," 
at West River, Anne Arundel county, 
Md., is still standing, and has re- 
mained in the hands of the Galloway 
family for two centuries. — W. U. H.] 



(22) 

The Shippen School For Girls. 

The Shippen School for Girls was 
formed in January, 1908, by a combi- 
nation of Lancaster College with Miss 
Stahr's School, and is now under di- 
rection of Miss Waterman. It was 
named from the Shippen family, by 
whom the house now used as a dor- 
mitory was occupied at the end of the 
eighteenth and beginning of the nine- 
teenth century. 

The school aims to give such an 
education, both primary and secondary, 
as is especially suited to a girl's 
needs, whether she be preparing for 
college or finishing her education in 
this school. Graduates of the school 
who have finished the college pre- 
paratory course may 'enter Wellesley, 
Smith, Vassar, Oberlin and Goucher 
Colleges by certification. 

The regular college preparatory 
course is supplemented by studies de- 
signed to round out a girl's knowledge 
and to give a practical application to 
her wont, and it is the aim of all the 
teaching of the school to add to men- 
tal training the development of the 
faculty of appreciation and a high 
standard of taste. 

The health and physical training of 
the pupils are considered of primary 
importance. Special attention is given 
to so adapting studies and exercises, 
both in and out of doors, to individual 
needs as best to promote the healthful 
development of the body and the 
mind. 

Considerationi for others, simplicity 
and honesty of work are expected 
from the pupils, and co-operation in 
securing regularity and promptness or 
attendance and the thorough prepara- 
tion of assigned work is requested 
from the patrons. 

While elaborate or expensive en- 
tertainments are discouraged, the 



(23) 

school fosters a social life which is 
shared hy teachers and. students. It 
is undenominational, but distinctly 
Christian in spirit. The girls are -en- 
couraged to take a personal interest 
in civic and philanthropic movements, 
and, as womem, its graduates feel the 
obligation to be useful members of 
society. 

TEACHERS. 

Florence Waterman, Principal, B.A. 
Western Reserve University. Latin 
and Greek. 

Jane Allen, B.A. Bryn Mawr Col- 
lege; graduate student, Bryn Mawr 
College. English. 

Anna L. Mclntyre, B.A. Western 
Reserve University. History. 

Estelle E. Littlefield, B.A. Welles- 
ley College. Mathematics. 

Emily R. Underhill, B.A. Swarth- 
more College. Studied at the Uni- 
versity of Grenoble and McGill Uni- 
versity. French and German. 

Alice R. Appenzeller, B.A. Welles- 
ley College. Assistant in French and 
German. 

Edna J. Thomas, graduate of the 
New Jersey State Normal School. 
Director of the Intermediate and Pri- 
mary School. 

Madeline Morrison, B.A. Swarth- 
more College. Assistant in the In- 
termediate and Primary School. 

Ruth L. Walker, graduate of the 
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. 
Physiology and Gymnastics. 

Miriam Shaub, Philadelphia Mu- 
sical Academy. Vocal Music and In- 
termediate work. 

Virginia Gerhart, Philadelphia 
School of Design. Drawing. 

George E. Benkert. Instrumental 
music. 




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